The development of new treatment modalities for neoplastic diseases has coincided with the invention of in vivo drug delivery systems. The in vivo drug delivery systems can, in principal, ameliorate the harmful side effect of antineoplastic agents. Over the past 4 years, ECOSYNTHETIX has developed a series of biobased products including new sugar based vinyl macromers that serve as building blocks for a variety of polymer technologies. These sugar macromers have unusual properties that have been exploited in the area of water-based copolymers used in applications such as environmentally friendly pressure sensitive adhesives and water-based inks. ECOSYNTHETIX has optimized the process for incorporation of the sugar macromers into various copolymers and novel cross-linked starch nanoparticles. As part of this proposal, a process is proposed for production of novel macromer/starch hybrid materials that are inherently non-toxic. The hybrid materials will be developed for drug delivery systems to be used in the treatment of cancer. The hybrid nanospheres will be used to encapsulate several different antineoplastic agents including camptothecin derivatives and BCNU. The starch hybrids will be cast as thin films with the incorporated drug. The release profiles of the thin films will be determined. The physical properties of the drug-nanosphere complex will be studied. In addition, the release profiles of the drug-nanosphere complexes will be determined under physiological conditions. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS: Starch nanosphere hybrid particles represent a new class of particles to be used as drug delivery systems for treatment of manner. These nanosphere particles could potentially extend the use of antitumor agents such as namtothecin derivatives, BCNU.